(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
This story was originally published by Iowa Capital Dispatch and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Dickinson County supervisors set to vote on pipeline ordinance • Iowa Capital Dispatch [1]

['Jared Strong', 'Robert Leonard', 'Jay Waagmeester', 'More From Author', '- April']

Date: 2024-04-15  

The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors will consider on Tuesday whether to require carbon dioxide pipelines to be placed certain distances away from areas and buildings that are populated with people and animals.

The five-member board is set to hold a public hearing for the pipeline ordinance and vote on whether to approve it, according to a meeting agenda. The board might also finalize that vote by waiving two further readings of the ordinance.

It would be the sixth county ordinance adopted in response to the pipeline system that Summit Carbon Solutions is planning to build. The company has filed federal lawsuits against five counties to prevent them from enforcing similar measures.

Dickinson officials have said their ordinance is less restrictive than the others and that they hope to avoid litigation. Summit has declined to comment about the ordinance.

It would require carbon dioxide pipelines to be at least 1,600 feet from cities. That’s about one-seventh the distance specified by other ordinances that require two miles of separation.

The Dickinson ordinance also has setbacks of a half mile for churches, medical facilities, nursing homes, parks, schools and other “sensitive” areas; 1,600 feet for homes and other buildings occupied by people; 1,000 feet for livestock operations and certain utility infrastructure; and 200 feet for water wells.

The Iowa Utilities Board is poised to decide whether to issue Summit a permit for its initial route, which includes about 690 miles of pipe that will connect to ethanol producers in Iowa to transport their captured carbon dioxide to North Dakota for underground storage. In March, the company announced it was doubling its number of connected ethanol plants in Iowa and wants to add about 340 miles of pipe to the project.

Counties have sought to restrict where the pipelines can be placed due to residents’ fears about a catastrophic pipeline break. Under certain conditions, such a rupture can form a plume of carbon dioxide that stays close to the ground and can travel long distances, potentially asphyxiating people and animals.

County leaders have also attempted to restrict pipeline placement to protect future development.

Summit has been successful so far with its litigation: A judge ruled in December that the IUB has ultimate authority on pipeline route placement and issued permanent injunctions that bar Shelby and Story counties from enforcing their ordinances.

Those decisions have been appealed, and three other lawsuits against Emmet, Kossuth and Palo Alto counties are paused until the appeals conclude, court records show.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2024/04/15/dickinson-county-supervisors-set-to-vote-on-pipeline-ordinance/

Published and (C) by Iowa Capital Dispatch
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND-NC 4.0.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/iowacapitaldispatch/